The Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), has called for a stronger global focus on confiscating the proceeds of drug trafficking, warning that arrests alone cannot dismantle criminal networks.
According to a statement on Tuesday by the anti-narcotics agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, Marwa made the call while delivering a presentation, “Criminal Property and the Criminal Process: How Can We Make It More Effective?” at the 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, organised by the Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
He said the success of the criminal justice system should not be measured solely by convictions but by whether it makes crime financially unprofitable.
“A trafficker who loses his liberty but retains his fortune has not truly been defeated,” Marwa said, noting that criminal wealth could finance fresh operations and sustain criminal networks.
He likened arresting traffickers without dismantling their financial empires to “pruning a weed at the stem while leaving its roots undisturbed”, warning that illicit wealth could resurface through front companies or different jurisdictions.
Marwa outlined six strategies deployed by the NDLEA to strengthen asset recovery, backed by the NDLEA Act 2004, Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2022 and Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022.
He cited the recovery and sale of the Hook Hotel, linked to a fugitive drug suspect, through non-conviction-based forfeiture. The property was sold for $4.2 million, with the proceeds paid into the Federal Government’s forfeited assets account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The NDLEA chief also disclosed that investigators and prosecutors are now embedded together from the outset of cases, enabling faster restraint orders. He said the agency froze bank accounts worth more than $7 million last month and secured interim forfeiture orders covering multibillion-naira assets, including filling stations, multi-storey buildings and exotic vehicles linked to a fugitive methamphetamine syndicate.
On the case of suspected drug baron Amadi Simon, who was arrested in Switzerland through a joint operation involving the NDLEA, US Drug Enforcement Administration and authorities in Switzerland, Greece and France, Marwa said three hotels linked to the suspect were placed under professional asset managers to preserve their value pending trial.
He also highlighted the use of unexplained-wealth provisions and interlocutory sales of perishable or depreciating assets to prevent the erosion of their value before final judgments.
Marwa said the approach had been incorporated into Nigeria’s National Drug Control Master Plan 2026–2030, making financial disruption of drug cartels a sustained national priority.
He identified speed, preservation of value and institutionalisation as three key principles, while calling for faster international cooperation, stronger forensic accounting capacity and improved cross-border recognition of non-conviction-based forfeiture orders.
Marwa reaffirmed the NDLEA’s readiness to deepen international partnerships aimed at dismantling the financial architecture sustaining drug trafficking.
